Things That Don't Make Sense

Ads That Almost Changed My Mind, Part II

If it’s toasted, it can’t be that bad.

And what about these couples from a 1929 Camel ad? Don’t they look cozy and warm in the amber glow of a Prohibition-era eatery? If I couldn’t drink, I’d be smoking, too. Enjoy your finery and walking sticks while you got ’em, folks. Nine months ’til Black Tuesday…

Don’t you all forget, smoking WAS cool. All the hipsters smoked. My parents both smoked. My father smoked non filter Pall Malls and he had freaking asthma. My mother smoked menthol Bel-Airs. When my father finally quite cigarettes at the demand of the doctor, he went to a pipe, with a Amphora tobacco. I can still smell it in my mind. My mother only stopped smoking when she was pregnant with my sisters. It’s a wonder I never started in one case … Both my younger sisters did! But I HATED the way everything in our house reeked of smoke when I was a kid. But yeah, all my friends’ parents smoked. Geez, it wasn’t until relatively recently in our culture that smoking was beaten back and became NOT COOL. Thank goodness.

True, true. I used to fake smoke candy cigarettes as a kid, and I thought it was cool when Sandy put her cigarette out in Grease, and hell, I even fell for a bartender who smoke a pack a day, but you are right–the reeking is the hardest part. I would go clubbing 3 nights a week and my long hair would stink and make my pillow stink and I was just used to it. Today a smoker walked into Walmart, and I said, “Dang! He smells like a casino!” Now pipes, pipes I can get on board with. I love that smell…Thanks for sharing your smokey family memories.